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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

REopt/Microgrid Analysis (CRADA Final Report)

NREL is the only DOE national laboratory solely dedicated to advancing energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) technologies and applications. Since its inception, NREL has supported both the public and the private sectors in implementing EE and RE systems and strategies to lower energy use and to meet remaining energy needs with resources having minimal environmental impact. NREL is now a sought-after resource for EE, RE, and energy systems integration expertise. CU Boulder is a public university located in Boulder, Colorado, with over 30,000 students. CU is committed to environmental sustainability and is interested in partnering with NREL to explore opportunities for RE on campus and evaluate an RE microgrid. The goal of this project is to assess the technical and economic potential for RE generation at CU and evaluate how RE may be incorporated as part of a microgrid to increase energy resiliency on campus.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Community Energy Operations and Planning System: Concept, Use cases, Metrics, and Benefits

Community and city leaders are interested in achieving sustainability goals, providing resilient energy infrastructure, and improving economic competitiveness. Community-level data acquisition and analysis can provide energy and associated benefits that are not possible at the single building level. However, there is a lack of organizational structure, common semantic data models, interoperable systems, and methods to support data-driven decision-making for community-scale energy supply and demand systems. We explored the need and opportunity for a Community Energy Operations and Planning System (Community EOPS), a potential data exchange platform. We conducted “customer discovery” interviews, and reviewed literature, public tools, and technology platforms to identify key energy data “users” and use cases in communities. The key users of the Community EOPS could be developers of mixed-use districts, corporate, defense and university campus energy managers, and city managers of cities that own their energy utility. The value could be for community planning and reporting (for energy data-integrated land use planning and community infrastructure investments in microgrids, storage, district heating and cooling), energy efficiency (leveraging optimizations for community scale energy supply and demand), flexible load management (grid-edge load management to offset, shift, and flatten loads for multiple buildings and EV fleets), cost savings and revenue generation (participating in grid services), and social benefits such as energy resilience, equity, and awareness. We developed a conceptual Community EOPS architecture with recommendations for streamlined and prioritized data acquisition, sharing, and integration driven by prioritized use cases, common metrics, and actionable visualizations that can provide value to a community’s users.

Singh, Reshma↗
DOE OSTI2024

Editorial: Innovations in climate resilience

At Battelle’s second Annual Innovations in Climate Resilience Conference, we were inspired this year by the phrase “Bold Leaps and Action.” Climate resilience is a goal and a field that requires boldness. Achieving a state in which societies, countries, continents, and even the globe is robust to changes in climate is often met with doubt, speculation, and indifference. Boldness is required to overcome the gap between an individual’s personal experience and the sheer scale of climate interactions that span from microbes to planets and from nanoseconds to millennia. Moreover, individual scientists, government leaders, and industrialists might each make a small impact and never directly see a measurable effect in Earth’s climate resilience. Is the scientific work in this area futile? Are we as a community on the right path or are we on the right track? Or are we collectively leveraging our potential and contributions toward scalable and more impactful climate resilience solutions that create compounding effects for cities, regions, countries? That leads us to the second part of the phrase that inspired us. It is not just bold leaps but it is action too. The scientific community must put into effect the discoveries that come along with our work in climate resilience. This includes the processes or activities that translate foundational science into real products that society can use. Never before in the history of this country have we had such a commitment to the Research Topic of climate resilience. The White House has made it a major part of their platform. Congress has appropriated and authorized billions of dollars in support. The part we need next is real action. Through our efforts we can discover the interconnected scientific breakthroughs at many spatial scales from city/regional/state to global that were not possible without those government programs.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Pathways to a Sustainable Aviation Ecosystem: Sustainable Aviation for Developing Economies

In the face of climate change, developing countries are innovating to rapidly lower emissions and enable resilient, secure, and just energy transitions. Transportation accounts for roughly one- fifth of global carbon dioxide emissions, making mobility a key focus area for the international community, and is also critical in supporting social equity and human well-being. At the intersection of economic development, mobility, and clean energy, sustainable aviation systems can help simultaneously deliver key climate and clean energy goals to support advanced and decarbonized energy systems.

aircraft↗
DOE OSTI2025

Master Services Agreement - Flexible Feeder/Distribution System Support: Cooperative Research and Development (Final Report)

PGE will engage NREL on a broad range of projects related to the integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) into the utility's operations. This portfolio of work could include projects focused on DER adoption models, advanced distribution management system (ADMS) and distributed energy management system (DERMS) design, DER dispatch strategy development, and DER valuation framework development. Additional topics could include long-term energy planning, renewable energy, energy efficiency and demand-side management. As well as technology evaluations and design guidance for building retrofits and new construction projects, energy and energy infrastructure planning, policies, and markets (and their analysis), energy storage, energy security and resilience (including energy system-related cybersecurity), transportation and mobility, technology integration analysis. Additionally, other assistance as requested by PGE consistent with NREL’s expertise.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Scaffolding civic infrastructures: Examining the role of civic technoscience in public engagements with oil and gas pipelines

Oil and gas pipelines bring attention to the importance of public participation in the management of large-scale infrastructure projects. Participation transforms how communities understand benefits and risks, and can result in safer and more resilient projects. However, participation can be hindered by procedural injustices in planning processes and lack of industry transparency. Based on a survey of 103 civil society groups conducted in 2021, this paper investigates how groups mobilize technical projects and expert knowledge to overcome these. We frame these mobilizations as expressions of civic technoscience, and argue their pivotal role in building capacity for effective engagements with pipelines. To this extent, we furthermore suggest that civic technoscience is fundamental to building civic infrastructures for reforming participatory governance gaps. We conclude with recommendations for how civic technoscience can better support the intentions of civic infrastructuring by coordinating activities across coalitions, as well as by shifting the scales at which groups engage with the governance of pipelines.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Sensor enabled data-driven predictive analytics for modeling and control with high penetration of DERs in distribution systems

The electric power grid is undergoing a tremendous transformation due to the increasing penetration of renewable energy resources beginning with wind and more recently with the distributed energy resources (DERs) such as solar and battery storage. DERs have dramatically changed the role of the distribution systems in the overall power grid, and they are expected to contribute a significant portion of power generation in the future. If current trends for DERs continue, system operation and control will need to change dramatically for improved grid reliability and resiliency. As renewable resources increase in penetration, new and challenging operational, planning, and design problems are expected to emerge. Some of the key challenges that arise in the planning and operation of the future grid are: 1) Quantifying the impact of high DER penetration in distribution systems on bulk grid behavior over multiple time scales. 2) Identifying whether a particular DER configuration/settings have a large impact on the overall grid behavior. These challenges can be addressed in an offline manner using detailed T&D grid models and they can also be addressed in an online manner using sensor measurements. In particular, the advancement and planned growth in sensor technology in power grid over various voltage levels provide us with a unique opportunity to tackle these challenges from a data analytic perspective without needing detailed T&D grid models. A few questions that naturally arise when addressing the challenges from DERs using sensor data are: 1) How can we use limited sensor measurements to monitor & control voltage stability and small signal stability of the bulk system? 2) How can we ensure that the developed data analytic methods are robust to data availability and quality issues? 3) How can we compute the developed analytics in a scalable manner using streaming measurements? In this project, we addressed the aforementioned challenges arising from DERs and answered the questions raised above on how to effectively use the sensor measurements to enhance the reliability and performance of the electric grid. Thus, the overarching goal of this project is to develop effective reduced/representative system models from data that make the computational complexity sufficiently manageable so as to be useful to simulate, analyze, and even control complex non-linear power systems dynamics with large penetrations of DERs. In order to achieve the objective, the project team established a four-fold technical approach 1) Formulated a combined transmission-distribution co-simulation framework for data generation and validation, 2) Derived reduced/representative models of power systems based on data-driven methods for efficient computation and appropriate representation of system behavior, 3) Developed data driven characterization of power system behavior based on transfer operator theory, machine learning and optimization for model estimation, 4) Incorporated a scalable data management and processing architecture using distributed Kafka streaming applications that coordinate input data streams to the developed data analytics. The key accomplishments of the project are: 1) Development of a scalable multi-timescale T&D co-simulation framework (both for steady state and for dynamic co-simulation) using commercial solvers (PSSE and GridLAB-D). The steady-state T&D co-simulation interface is shared with our industry partner (PJM). 2) A structured reduced order dynamic model of distribution systems that can represent partial motor stalling along with a systematic procedure to derive the model parameters. 3) A PMU based online method to monitor, localize and mitigate fault-induced delayed voltage recovery using DER reactive support and load control in distribution systems. 4) Development of linear operator based robust methodologies for dynamic state estimation, uncertainty quantification, system identification and trajectory prediction for power system dynamics. 5) An adaptive damping control for utilizing wind energy resources to provide oscillation damping and system stability. 6) Implementation of Kafka-based framework for efficient processing of streaming data using Linux-based local virtual environment.

DER integration↗
DOE OSTI2024

Concrete Thermal Energy Storage Enabling Flexible Operation without Coal Plant Cycling

The work described in this report is responsive to the Office of Fossil Energy program “Energy Storage for Fossil Power Generation.” The pilot plant built as a result of this project demonstrated the feasibility and performance of a concrete thermal energy storage (CTES) system integrated with a supercritical coal power plant. The 10 MWh electrical (>25 MWh thermal) CTES unit, developed by Storworks Power, was designed to enable flexible operation of coal plants without cycling damage. The project's key technical achievements showcase a significant advancement in energy storage technology. A modular CTES system using 42 “Bolderblocs” units was successfully designed and constructed at Alabama Power’s Plant Gaston Unit 5, with each block containing embedded stainless-steel coils in specialized, cost-effective high-temperature concrete. The system interfaced seamlessly with the plant's 3500 psig (241 barg), 1000°F (538°C) supercritical steam, demonstrating operational flexibility. Over 86 full cycles, the CTES exhibited rapid charging and discharging capabilities, effectively mimicking steam turbine feed conditions and handling varying load profiles and storage durations. Performance validation confirmed the system's ability to consistently meet design target steam conditions of 75 bar-a and ~400°C for nominal baseline discharge. The concrete material withstood repeated thermal cycling without degradation, validating earlier lab-scale tests. Integration of balance of plant components, including a condensate management system with storage tank and air-cooled condenser, minimized plant interfaces and water consumption. A robust control scheme ensured safe, automated operation across various scenarios. Key learnings from the project were invaluable: 1. Initial concrete drying and commissioning procedures were refined for future deployments, enhancing efficiency in subsequent installations. 2. System flexibility exceeded expectations, with rapid response to changing conditions. 3. Design improvements were identified including optimized insulation and piping that will enhance overall system efficiency in future deployments 4. Full cycle thermal roundtrip efficiencies exceeded 88%. While the roundtrip electrical efficiency was somewhat limited by known challenges using input steam, such constraints may be mitigated by swapping steam for hot air as thermal input. 5. A summary of key performance parameters for the pilot test and predicted performance of a full scale commercial system with specified improvements determined from the pilot are shown in Section 8. The project faced challenges, including COVID-19 delays and host plant availability constraints. However, these were overcome through adaptive planning and execution. The successful management of these obstacles demonstrated the resilience and adaptability of the project team and the robustness of the CTES technology. This successful pilot demonstrates the potential for CTES to enhance coal plant flexibility, supporting grid stability as renewable penetration increases. The validated design and operational data provide a solid foundation for scaling up to utility-scale implementations, potentially transforming how thermal plants operate in evolving energy landscapes. The system's ability to rapidly respond to changing grid conditions while maintaining high efficiency makes it a promising solution for balancing intermittent renewable energy sources. Furthermore, the project highlighted the potential for even greater efficiencies in future iterations. The use of air as an input medium could potentially eliminate the limitations observed with steam input, opening new possibilities for energy storage applications beyond coal plant integration. In conclusion, this pilot project not only achieved its primary goals but also uncovered additional benefits and potential applications of the CTES technology. It represents a significant step forward in addressing the challenges of grid stability and flexibility in an increasingly renewable-driven energy landscape.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2026

Electric Utility Distribution Costs: Scoping Study on Trends, Drivers, and Possible Response Strategies [Slides]

This scoping study synthesizes information that will help stakeholders understand the scope, scale, and drivers of recent increases in investor-owned utility (IOU) expenditures on local distribution power grids, while providing regulators and other decision-makers with potential strategies to keep electricity bills down. The study includes five distinct components. Drawing first on data from FERC Form 1, it summarizes key trends in past and recent IOU distribution costs. Next, through a review of a sample of distribution-system plans, it characterizes material drivers of planned distribution expenditures. Ultimately, regulators must approve cost recovery for IOU expenditures, including those for the distribution system. The study therefore also: examines trends in utility requests and regulatory approvals related to changes in retail rates and return on equity; identifies areas where utility shareholder and customer incentives may be misaligned; and develops a menu of options that state regulators might consider to optimize distribution system expenditures. Some of the key findings include: - IOU distribution spending at a national level has grown by 6%/yr since 2014 in real dollar terms, 4x faster than in the prior 20 years and consisting mostly of capital (not operating) expenditure. - On a per-kWh basis, increases in IOU distribution costs since 2014 represent over 30% of the overall national-average increase in retail electricity rates. - Regional spending growth has ranged from 2-8%/yr, with larger estimated rate impacts in CAISO, then NYISO & ISO-NE, and then the Southeast, MISO & PJM (see figure). - Some utilities are planning for significantly increased distribution system spending. Planned spending on managing the existing system (asset replacement, safety & reliability, and resilience are all important drivers) exceeds that for capacity expansion. - IOU rate increase requests ($18 billion in 2025) and public utility commission (PUC) approval levels (average of 64% of requested amounts from 2021-2025) have recently hit multi-decadal highs. - PUCs in New England and the Southeast have recently approved a greater fraction of rate requests (>75%, on average) than in ther regions, while PUCs in California and the Southeast have generally authorized higher equity returns than in other regions. - Regulators have many tools to tackle potential misalignments between utility and customer interests and, more specifically, to optimize and reduce distribution costs. Shorter-term options include those related to return on equity, capital structure, depreciation, trackers, construction work in progress, and securitization. Longer-term options include performance-based regulation and a wide variety of planning-related requirements. All options embed important tradeoffs.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Resilient water infrastructure partnerships in institutionally complex systems face challenging supply and financial risk tradeoffs

Abstract As regions around the world invest billions in new infrastructure to overcome increasing water scarcity, better guidance is needed to facilitate cooperative planning and investment in institutionally complex and interconnected water supply systems. This work combines detailed water resource system ensemble modeling with multiobjective intelligent search to explore infrastructure investment partnership design in the context of ongoing canal rehabilitation and groundwater banking in California. Here we demonstrate that severe tradeoffs can emerge between conflicting goals related to water supply deliveries, partnership size, and the underlying financial risks associated with cooperative infrastructure investments. We show how hydroclimatic variability and institutional complexity can create significant uncertainty in realized water supply benefits and heterogeneity in partners’ financial risks that threaten infrastructure investment partnership viability. We demonstrate how multiobjective intelligent search can design partnerships with substantially higher water supply benefits and a fraction of the financial risk compared to status quo planning processes. This work has important implications globally for efforts to use cooperative infrastructure investments to enhance the climate resilience and financial stability of water supply systems.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗
DOE OSTI2021

Modeling Framework for Evaluating Grid Disturbances

Recent research in the literature proposed parameter-based functional forms to quantify the impact of disturbances on electric power grids. This modeling was based on a concept of generalized grid disturbances that harmonized reliability and resilience. Three main stages—avoid, react, and recover—were identified, and to support practicality, were intended to be independently planned. An objective of the grid disturbance model was to fairly analyze the potential impacts of novel mitigations like transactive energy systems (TES) on grid reliability and resilience. Quantitative evaluation of a common performance metric (e.g., area under the curve of percentage customers online before, during, and after an event) over time was shown as an effective tool for such analysis. Such quantification may also enable system planners to assess the impact of appropriate mitigative actions for improving grid performance against potential disturbances. This is the focus of this report, i.e., presenting an evaluation modeling framework that can be utilized to evaluate grid performance against disturbances, under a variety of existing and possible new mitigative actions.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Day-Ahead Forecasting with Federated LSTM to Plan Energy Sharing in a Community Microgrid

Energy balancing in microgrids is a key enabler of resilience. Community microgrids located close to each other have the added benefit of networking and sharing surplus energy, if available. Such complex decision-making runs on optimization that requires reliable short-term (up to very-short-term) forecasts of energy generation and consumption for scheduling or trading. Each microgrid may also opt to not expose their sensitive data such as consumption patterns of individual businesses or residences. This paper investigates a federated approach to dayahead forecasting that trains naive long short-term memory (LSTM) at each business in a microgrid and aggregates weights at the microgrid controller using proximal regularization. This approach ensures that the controller has access only to energy surplus/deficit and not the actual generation or consumption values, avoiding unwanted exposure of sensitive data. A community microgrid in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico with 3 businesses is selected as a case study with a laboratory-scale computing setup. A central LSTM forecaster, where sensitive data from businesses are aggregated at the controller, is implemented as a baseline for qualifying the results. This work serves as a proof-of-concept for scaling the approach to networked and nested microgrids with more complex control options.

Sundararajan, Aditya [ORNL] (ORCID:000000033577854↗
DOE OSTI2024

Evaluating Utility Costs Savings and Resilience: A Case Study in Port Arthur, Texas

This study evaluates the techno-economic feasibility of integrating solar photovoltaics (PV), battery energy storage systems (BESS), and generators to enhance both cost savings and resilience in critical community facilities in Port Arthur, Texas. Using NREL's REopt model, we analyze four facilities: the Golden Triangle Empowerment Center (GTEC), Lamar State College (LSC), Port Arthur Independent School District (PAISD), and Port Arthur Transit (PAT). A key aspect of the analysis is the incorporation of the Value of Lost Load (VoLL) and microgrid upgrade costs to assess the hidden value of resilience during grid outages. While standalone PV scenarios show moderate cost reductions and a 10-15% decrease in CO2 emissions, the inclusion of resilience measures with BESS and generators significantly increases system costs. However, the hidden value of resilience - quantified through avoided outage costs - leads to a substantial improvement in financial outcomes, resulting in positive Net Present Value (NPV) at many sites. The study demonstrates that resilient solar and storage systems offer both economic and resilience benefits, particularly for underserved communities, by balancing energy savings and enhanced operational continuity during outages.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Collaborative Distribution System Restoration Planning and Real-Time Dispatch Considering Behind-the-Meter DERs

Modern distribution systems are becoming more resilient against power outages thanks to the flexible generation capacity provided by the increasing integration of distributed energy resources (DERs). Compared to utility-scale DERs, which can be directly controlled by system operators, small-scale, behind-the-meter DERs are much more difficult to coordinate despite being the vast majority. Two major obstacles to the implementation of DERs for service restoration are the coordination of behind-the-meter DERs and the management of uncertainty. In this paper, a novel distribution system restoration strategy is proposed to overcome these two obstacles. The flexibility of be-hind-the-meter DERs is quantified and integrated into the restoration planning models within a hierarchical structure. The model predictive control technique is employed to enable adaptive restoration planning solution adjustments to accommodate fault scenarios and forecast errors. Besides, real-time power dispatch models are proposed to maintain power balance using available DER capability. Comprehensive integration of adaptive restoration planning schemes and real-time dispatch results are achieved through a collaborative restoration framework. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed restoration strategy is verified through a modified IEEE 123-bus system and a real-world utility system.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS2022

Embedding Climate Change in Urban Planning and Urban Design in New York City

Confronting the challenges of a rapidly urbanizing world threatened by climate change requires expanding the traditional influence and capabilities of urban planning and urban design, integrating climate science, natural systems and compact urban form to configure dynamic, desirable and healthy communities. Cost-effective planning and design measures that help mitigate emissions while bringing adaptive benefits should be prioritized. The chapter draws from the publication Climate Change and Cities (Cambridge University Press 2018) by the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN). The two-phase New York City case study by the Urban Design Climate Lab at the New York Institute of Technology and a team of international urban design climate experts illustrates how this emerging expertise can be replicated and implemented worldwide. Its focus on configuring people-centered public spaces that enhance energy efficiency and improve public health draws from four urban climate factors: improving efficiency of urban systems, both in energy and transportation; optimizing the form and layout of urban districts to enhance ventilation; promoting appropriate building materials with high reflectivity; and increasing green and blue urban infrastructure. The chapter highlights a set of tools and methods to measure success.

Resiliency↗
DOE OSTI2023

Understand the Costs of an Energy or Water Outage with the Customer Damage Function Calculator

The Customer Damage Function (CDF) Calculator is a free, publicly available web tool that helps users estimate the costs incurred at their site due to an electric grid or water service outage. Developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) with support from the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), the tool is designed to help federal facility owners, building energy managers, and resilience planners understand and quantify the value of resilience to justify investments that would prevent or lessen the impact of a disruption.

CDF Calculator↗
DOE OSTI2021

Powering Post-COVID-19 Resilient Recovery with Green Stimulus

As the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic spread globally in early 2020, many governments enacted lockdown measures as an initial containment response. These lockdowns, while effective in slowing infection rates, have also had substantial economic consequences. A series of supply and demand shocks, workforce and supply chain disruptions, and other impacts of the pandemic and ensuing lockdowns have upended the livelihoods for much of the world's population. This quick read spotlights how green stimulus plans and other recovery measures can support near-term recovery and enable longer-term power system resilience against future threats. The term “green stimulus” encompasses fiscal measures (i.e., governmental tax and spending actions) that support short-term economic activity that enhances environmental and natural resource quality over a longer term. The deployment of energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) technologies, as well as associated initiatives (e.g., grid modernization, electrification of transport, and so on) have been demonstrably effective in providing this kind of short-run economic boost while simultaneously strengthening the resilience of the power sector. Along with green stimulus packages, concurrent action on the regulatory side—for example, the development of green building codes, updating grid interconnection standards, creating programs and marketplaces for demand-side efficiency, and others—can be a force multiplier in ensuring that public spending achieves maximum impact in near-term recovery and long-term power sector transformation

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗